No. Sprawls are not necessarily 99.9% effective. Using the sprawl or a knee during a live situation involves quite a few variables. How far away is the wrestler shooting from? How good is his technique?

It's ridiculously easy to sprawl against the "zombie" shot, meaning when the person is bent at the waist instead of the knees, but when someone sets up their double leg take down with a few strikes and then drops down for the double when you're moving in to counter, you will probably not have time to sprawl.

I've been a wrestler since I was in high school, 25 years ago. I can still successfully sprawl against collegiate wrestlers who are younger and faster than me at BJJ, Judo or wrestling practice.

If you start popping me in the face or body beforehand though, my success rate goes down significantly.

People who don't train in combat sports never understand how chaotic sparring is, or how hard it is to successfully pull off techniques against a fully resisting opponent. Add to this, things get even more chaotic outside the gym in real life altercations.

I'm not trying to be a dick when I say that. Just giving you an insider's perspective.

No. Sprawls are not necessarily 99.9% effective. Using the sprawl or a knee during a live situation involves quite a few variables. How far away is the wrestler shooting from? How good is his technique?

It's ridiculously easy to sprawl against the "zombie" shot, meaning when the person is bent at the waist instead of the knees, but when someone sets up their double leg take down with a few strikes and then drops down for the double when you're moving in to counter, you will probably not have time to sprawl.

I've been a wrestler since I was in high school, 25 years ago. I can still successfully sprawl against collegiate wrestlers who are younger and faster than me at BJJ, Judo or wrestling practice.

If you start popping me in the face or body beforehand though, my success rate goes down significantly.

People who don't train in combat sports never understand how chaotic sparring is, or how hard it is to successfully pull off techniques against a fully resisting opponent. Add to this, things get even more chaotic outside the gym in real life altercations.

I'm not trying to be a dick when I say that. Just giving you an insider's perspective.

So...what's the best defense then? Try to take the other guy down before he gets a chance to take you down? Just throw a barrage of strikes to keep him away?

I read on the internet that wrestlers are used to being hit on the top of the head when they're doing a takedown. So this makes the hammer fist useless, doesn't it? When someone's executing a takedown, usually the top of his head and his ears are exposed, right? So the ear slap would be available as a move, right?

I heard an ear slap can rupture the eardrums and cause instant disorientation and loss of balance.

However, I'm not sure how useful this would be as a takedown defense.

Surely the wrestler doesn't need a sense of balance to take you down once he has grabbed one or both of your legs?

Is sprawling the only practical takedown defense? You need to coordinate both your arms and legs when sprawling, whereas with an ear slap you only need to bring your hands together. I don't understand why sprawling would be easier than an ear slap.

So, how many sorts of "takedowns" do you think exist and why would an ear slap be the single viable "defense"?

Would a forearm strike to the jaw even be possible when someone begins to do a takedown? And why would it be better than a knee?

EDIT: sorry for double posting, can I merge two posts?

Good lord, you are totally untrained ? Hypothetically speaking, maybe you should go and train some and find out instead of just consulting the Internet? Where do you live, maybe we can help you find a place to train.

So...what's the best defense then? Try to take the other guy down before he gets a chance to take you down? Just throw a barrage of strikes to keep him away?

There is no single best defense. You have to train. Without training all the Internet wisdom (and JNP just imparted a big dose to you) is useless.

For example,I'm a judoka. Even before new rule changes in judo, having to deal with a high quality "shot" (single/double leg "takedown" aka Kibisu Gaeshi/Kuchiki Daoshi/Morote Gari in Judo terminology) was fairly rare. So we judoka didn't practice much sprawling. Well, I kept coming up against wrestlers for a while many years ago, so I had to basically teach myself how to sprawl, and then GO AND TRAIN WITH WRESTLERS TO DEVELOP THE REFLEXES/TIMING/TECHNIQUE to be able to sprawl effectively. Then,I developed groundwork attacks to followup in the context of Judo, and after I did that, I never got "taken down" again in a Judo match by the singles or doubles.

So even as a judo black belt I had to go and train to specifically learn to deal with "wrestling style" attacks.

So...what's the best defense then? Try to take the other guy down before he gets a chance to take you down? Just throw a barrage of strikes to keep him away?

Be aware of your surroundings, and leave if things look sketchy. Don't go to places with a reputation for random violence. Don't hang out in public drunk, particularly alone. Don't be a jerk, and if somebody calls you out, apologize and move on. If you get robbed anyway, throw him/them your money (ideally in a cash clip) and run.

Be aware of your surroundings, and leave if things look sketchy. Don't go to places with a reputation for random violence. Don't hang out in public drunk, particularly alone. Don't be a jerk, and if somebody calls you out, apologize and move on. If you get robbed anyway, throw him/them your money (ideally in a cash clip) and run.

Whoa, guys, isn't there a little bit too much armchairing here? ************ needs to get into a class and do some ****. Someone asking these things is beyond the reach of internet knowledge. As a ************ above said, get your motherfucking ass in the gym and train until that **** falls off. Because then you won't be asking ridiculous fucking ****, like if you can slap a ************ in the head to stop him from taking you down.

Originally Posted by ermghoti

Be aware of your surroundings, and leave if things look sketchy. Don't go to places with a reputation for random violence. Don't hang out in public drunk, particularly alone. Don't be a jerk, and if somebody calls you out, apologize and move on. If you get robbed anyway, throw him/them your money (ideally in a cash clip) and run.

And if you ever get into a deathmatch with Raz Al Ghul, make sure you kill that ************, because if you let him live, he will surely be coming back to **** with your ****.

Originally Posted by Goju - joe

being a dick with skill is only marginally better than being a dick without skill.